MegaCon in Orlando was this weekend (and is still, technically, going on) and I spent Saturday at it, but I won’t be able to give you much of a report as most of the panels I was interested in were too busy to get near. But I did get to meet Mark (“Badger”) Sheppard who was, as many of you told me, a great guy. He’s pictured here, holding the Badger Barbie made by my wife Teresa.
Some quick hits: attendance (and traffic) was massive. We got off the highway at 9:50 and got in the building, maybe 1/2 mile away, an hour later. There was a garden show at the same convention center, which certainly didn’t help but probably made for some great interactions. The line inside, for those who didn’t pre-order, was huge and extended to, I believe, Tampa. We pre-ordered: we scooted in.
Long lines for Adrian Pasdar (“Nathan” from Heroes) and Erica Durance (“Lois Lane” from Smallville). Not so much for Mark Sheppard, his dad W. Morgan Sheppard (a Klingon in Star Trek VI, among many other roles), Adrian Wilkinson (“Livia/Eve” from Xena), the usual Lost in Space folks, Peter Mayhew (“Chewbacca” from Star Wars), assorted folks from Beastmaster, Kyle XY, some of the Who Wants to Be a Superhero group, etc. Respectable turnout for Kristy Swanson (the movie Buffy) and Jack O’Halloran (the big Kryptonian from Superman II), but everyone had bursts of traffic here and there, I think.
Talked to Mark Sheppard a bit. Very friendly. As instructed (and threatened) I gave him the regards of BlackMarketBeagles guy and my webcomic partner Adam Levermore-Rich and his face lit up. “Oh, I know Adam! We did charity work together. Great guy. I’m a big fan of his.” That’s it, I need more celebrity friends. We talked about obsessive fans and how fast FOX would sue me if they saw me wearing the Blue Sun shirt I had on, and then I brought out the Badger Barbie, just finished the night before. He loved it, and started showing it off to his dad (at the next table over) and Adrienne Wilkinson (one more down.)
“Adrienne! Look at this!” He held it up.
She held up a packaged Livia/Eve action figure she was currently signing and waved it at him.
“Yeah, but mine’s bigger!”
She came over to check it out.
He pointed out that Badger should have a flamingo pin, but otherwise it was great. I got my pics, collected the Barbie and the posters I put down and everything else and moved on.
Wandered the creator alleys looking for people whose work I had brought to be signed, including Joe Quesada, John Romita Jr., Laura Martin, Mark Waid, and others. Found most of them but at the time lines were too long — the line for John Romita Jr. stretched across two more aisles) so I gave ’em a miss. Mark Waid signed my “Kingdom Come” comics and accepted my stuttering praise, and I bought a sketchbook from Amanda Conner since she’s already signed everything of hers I had from previous cons. I never did find Laura Martin despite constant searching — stopped a man carrying large prints of the first Serenity comic covers who pointed where she was and I still couldn’t find her, which should give you an idea of either how crowded it was or how incompetent I am, take your pick.
My son called me to hand over his signed Badger pic for me to carry, and I took everything all the way out to the car so I could concentrate on photos, when I realized that in the hassle of collecting all my stuff before I had forgotten to take my autographed Mark Sheppard pic! I zoomed back in the convention, fought through the crowds (this was hours later, I just knew he’d be gone for the day or something) and got to his table where he was explaining to a fan why American Idol was a more brilliant show than Stargate (I came in late on this, but it sounded like he was talking ratings, and not necessarily quality). I didn’t want to interrupt so I stood off to the side. Without breaking the conversation he reached under the table, produced my signed pic, handed it over, shook my hand, and grinned at me. I’m now a bigger Mark Sheppard fan than I was before, which ain’t easy.
The panel for Adrian Pasdar had lines waiting a half hour earlier so I gave that a miss. Talked to a lot of artists, browsed the booths, and took tons of photos. Mostly I was there to see Sheppard and to let my 15-year-old son James and his friend Morgan and Peyton experience a big con. I also handed out some con flyers for SaveHiatus, you know, as long as I was there… Waited for and attended the Webcomic Awards to see what was popular in my new field, and two favorites won the big ones: “Girl Genius” by Phil and Kaja Foglio won Best Writer and Outstanding Webcomic, and “The Perry Bible Fellowship” won Best Artist. Also there were bellydancers. Not sure why.
Mostly I took pictures, and you can head to my Flickr.com account to see ’em. Sorry I can’t offer a better in-depth review than this, I went purely as a casual tourist this time. In the meantime, here’s a closer pic of the Badger Barbie:
Your posts keep multiple-posting. What’s that about?
Dunno, but it’s annoying. Apparently other WordPress users have had similar problems but they seem related to new plugins and I haven’t added any recently. I’ll research it and see what I can find out.